slow rx 5600 xt fps

[Alex Deucher]

On Tue, May 19, 2020 at 2:59 PM Javad Karabi <karabijavad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> given this setup:
> laptop -thunderbolt-> razer core x -> xfx rx 5600 xt raw 2 -hdmi-> monitor
> DRI_PRIME=1 glxgears gears gives me ~300fps
>
> given this setup:
> laptop -thunderbolt-> razer core x -> xfx rx 5600 xt raw 2
> laptop -hdmi-> monitor
>
> glx gears gives me ~1800fps
>
> this doesnt make sense to me because i thought that having the monitor
> plugged directly into the card should give best performance.
>

Do you have displays connected to both GPUs?  If you are using X which
ddx are you using?  xf86-video-modesetting or xf86-video-amdgpu?
IIRC, xf86-video-amdgpu has some optimizations for prime which are not
yet in xf86-video-modesetting.  Which GPU is set up as the primary?
Note that the GPU which does the rendering is not necessarily the one
that the displays are attached to.  The render GPU renders to it's
render buffer and then that data may end up being copied other GPUs
for display.  Also, at this point, all shared buffers have to go
through system memory (this will be changing eventually now that we
support device memory via dma-buf), so there is often an extra copy
involved.

> theres another really weird issue...
>
> given setup 1, where the monitor is plugged in to the card:
> when i close the laptop lid, my monitor is "active" and whatnot, and i
> can "use it" in a sense
>
> however, heres the weirdness:
> the mouse cursor will move along the monitor perfectly smooth and
> fine, but all the other updates to the screen are delayed by about 2
> or 3 seconds.
> that is to say, its as if the laptop is doing everything (e.g. if i
> open a terminal, the terminal will open, but it will take 2 seconds
> for me to see it)
>
> its almost as if all the frames and everything are being drawn, and
> the laptop is running fine and everything, but i simply just dont get
> to see it on the monitor, except for one time every 2 seconds.
>
> its hard to articulate, because its so bizarre. its not like, a "low
> fps" per se, because the cursor is totally smooth. but its that
> _everything else_ is only updated once every couple seconds.

This might also be related to which GPU is the primary.  It still may
be the integrated GPU since that is what is attached to the laptop
panel.  Also the platform and some drivers may do certain things when
the lid is closed.  E.g., for thermal reasons, the integrated GPU or
CPU may have a more limited TDP because the laptop cannot cool as
efficiently.

Alex